


The Rose and the Spy

by juniorstarcatcher



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Gingerflower, Spy!hux, rose tico is a spy mistress and handles Armitage hux, spy games, trying to save what i love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2020-01-10
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:40:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21927592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/juniorstarcatcher/pseuds/juniorstarcatcher
Summary: Armitage Hux will give The Resistance all of the intel and advantages that they need to destroy his enemy, Kylo Ren. But what begins as strategic spying and sabotage turns into something quite different when Armitage Hux begins falling for Rose Tico.
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Rose Tico
Comments: 102
Kudos: 405
Collections: Rose Tico Fanworks





	1. Chapter 1

**Part One: The Past is Prologue.**

**(In Which Rose Tico is Captured and Verbally Beats Down Armitage Hux)**

They were separated for processing. Her. Finn. DJ. Suddenly, in an interrogation suite, with her hands bound up in restraints and her eyes glued to the closed door before her, her First Order uniform felt impossibly stupid. The stitching—loose and unfinished on the inside, imperfect—scratched at the skin beneath; the sleeves hung slightly too long. Everything on the outside reflected what she already knew on the inside.

Who would have believed _her_ as a First Order officer?

It wasn’t just the slightly ill-fitting uniform or the way she couldn’t quite master the First Order scowl that they apparently taught all new recruits in Officer Training. It was that she actually had some hope beneath her eyes; she still walked around like she had a soul inside of her.

Even if she died today, she was almost glad for that—that she couldn’t hide away that part of herself.

Rose Tico, unlike the people who manned the cannons and made the orders around here, knew, in the deepest, most sacred parts of her, that there was something greater than the black and white walls of this Star Destroyer. There was a vast universe out there, filled with people who deserved more—more than the sharp-jawed generals populating this ship. More than the fleets that stood at their command. More than the First Order. 

And if she died today, if these polished floors and emotionless stormtroopers were the last things she ever saw, maybe it would all be worth it. Maybe her death would bring that vast universe and all its people that _more_ that they so desperately deserved.

She believed that. She had to.

Because that belief was the only thing that kept her standing when Armitage Hux entered her cell. 

The hiss of hydraulic machinery—slightly too slow, as if an impulse link in the doorway had shorted; Rose could have fixed that if she had her toolbelt with her—alerted her to the new presence in the room, and when she looked up from her bound wrists, she saw him for the first time.

Well, not for the first time. After the First Order had commanded that all data files of his speech be deleted, her friends in the Resistance had spent countless hours remixing contraband footage of the Starkiller Base dedication, editing and reanimating his face to say the most ridiculous—and filthy—things imaginable.

Under any other circumstance, if she wasn’t a breath away from dying, she might have laughed at him; that’s how strong the memories of their jokes at his expense burned into her mind. Their endless, brutal derision had been one of the only things that kept her going during those first few months as a part of The Resistance.

But now, as she stared up at his towering form, laughter was the furthest thing from her mind. He was…different…than in the holo-videos. Taller in person. Striking to behold. Her breath—and her heart—stopped when he turned those frozen blue eyes upon her. Quickly, he dismissed the Stormtroopers flanking him, leaving only the two of them in the tight quarters of the interrogation suite.

“So,” The General began, his clipped tone sharp as a blaster bolt and twice as sure of itself. “You are the Resistance Spy.” Blue eyes narrowed slightly. “Strange. I thought you’d be more impressive.”

Rose noticed that her hands were trembling. She clenched them into fists; she’d rather die this minute than let him see a flicker of weakness in her. Maybe he was the intimidating mastermind of the First Order, but she was Rose Tico. And she wasn’t going to flinch when she finally had the chance to be a hero. Her sister hadn’t flinched; neither would she.

Lifting her chin to narrow her focus squarely upon him, she spit her words like sparks from a livewire. “And I thought you’d be a monster with a thousand teeth and blood sacs for eyes. I guess we’re both disappointed.”

The General—no, she couldn’t think about him like that. There was only _one_ General as far as she was concerned, and her name was Leia Organa— _Hux_ blinked, the slight twitch in his tight jaw muscles served as the only hint that she’d knocked him off course, but it was enough. A flare of victory warmed her chest. The familiar flicker of hope.

He recovered quickly, though, taking a long, stern step forward until he was so close she could count the threads in his uniform. So transparent. Trying to intimidate her. She wouldn’t let it work. “You have information about the Resistance. You will surrender this intel to the First Order or suffer the consequences.”

“I’m not telling you anything.”

Another pause. “The penalty for espionage is death.”

Had he expected her to weep? To fall at his feet and beg for mercy? To cling to him and declare that she would do _anything_ to live past this ordeal? Not likely. “There are more important things than saving your own skin. I wouldn’t betray my friends, my cause, the _galaxy_ for anything.”

His eyes searched her face, but for what, she didn’t have the first clue. Whatever it was, she hoped he wouldn’t find it. Straightening his spine, the man locked his hands behind his back. “It’s a shame to see such spirit wasted on a doomed cause.”

“As long as people with spirit believe in it, our cause is _not_ doomed. You couldn’t kill it with every Star Destroyer in the Galaxy.” She paused. Their eyes locked. Something flickered in those blue depths, something like a distant, bursting star. Rose’s pulse jumped at the possibility that there was something beyond the cold, cruel man standing before her. That had always been Rose’s one strength and her one weakness: hope. She always hoped for the best, even when the worst was preparing her execution order. “And you know that, don’t you? You know that you’re going to lose. ”

A muscle in Hux’s jaw tightened. His words hissed out from between clenched teeth. His tone? Deadly. “I am feeling particularly merciful today. I will allow you one more chance. Tell me or—”

“Or what? You’ll kill me? Sure, you can try. But you can’t kill The Resistance,” Rose said, braver than she felt but gaining strength with every passing breath. “Like I said. Our cause is not doomed.”

With that, he turned on one booted heel and marched towards the pneumatic door at the far end of the chamber. She knew she should have left it there, that she should have let the monster stalk out of her cage, but she couldn’t. Not when she saw something in him. Not when she believed that things could be different.

“Hux,” she called, and when the man turned on her, his eyes were no longer frozen, lifeless glaciers. They were twin seas of fire.  
  
“That’s _General_ Hux, to you, Resistance Scum.”  
  
Rose forced herself to hold her nerve. “Call yourself whatever you like. We both know what you really are.”

“And what, pray tell, is that?”

“Scared.” The word landed in the tense, canned air like a blow. Hux did not respond. “But you don’t have to be. There is hope out there in the Galaxy. And there’s a place for everyone in it.”

For a long moment, neither of them moved. Neither of them breathed. Something unspoken and unknowable seemed to pass between them, before, finally, Hux pressed the lock on the pneumatic door, ushered the stormtroopers in, and let her be taken away.

“Take her to join the others. I do hope the execution won’t be too painful, Miss Tico.”

“Couldn’t possibly be more painful than this conversation,” Rose grumbled.

Maybe it was just the near-death talking, but Rose would have sworn that she caught him almost smiling at that.

* * *

**Part Two: A Revolution is a Simple Thing.**

**(In Which Rose Discovers The First Order’s Spy)**

The myths and the legends of the first war against The Empire loomed large over The Resistance. Secondhand, Thirdhand, Fourth-hand tall tales of battles against Darth Vader and The Emperor lingered in the air like the smoke from a failing Griffin-Class light shuttle. Because of that, Rose understood her place. And it wasn’t in the spotlight. The heroes of old had been princesses and legendary Jedi.

She was just Rose. Rose Tico. One person trying to make a difference to an endless galaxy. And, for awhile, as she took ground duty as her injuries from the Battle of Crait healed, she was content with that. Content with playing her small, vital, and unassuming role in saving them all from the clutches of the First Order.

But then…then, she started hearing the transmissions. Her ground duty often included listening for hours on end for Resistance traffic or possible Resistance Sympathizer chatter. And, one day, she started hearing these coded messages coming through on a sub-space frequency. They would have been almost impossible to detect by anyone without the boosting chip she always placed in her Comm device, a small prototype she’d been working on at night when she couldn’t sleep.

This…this didn’t sound like either Sympathizers or First Order. This was something else. At first, she was fine to ignore it. But the longer she listened, the more the pattern made sense. She recognized it. The pattern played like a familiar child’s lullaby in the back of her mind; she could remember the tune, but the words were lost to her. Maddening. Taunting.

One night, in the world between sleep and dreams, she realized that the song didn’t have words at all. They were numbers.

A date. A time. Coordinates.

This was the kind of intel that she needed to take to General Organa right away. Protocol dictated that any lead she found at her Comm station would go directly up the chain so the General could decide what to do with it—if it was credible at all.

So…maybe she was a little bit crew-crazy when she told her colleagues she was taking one of the light-craft for a low-atmosphere test, but instead went, alone, to a slightly seedy starport in the Oetchi System. Maybe it wasn’t the smartest idea, especially considering that she had no idea where the message had originated, who it was meant for, or what they wanted.

All she knew was that her gut told her she had to go. If she ever wanted to get off of this rock and make a difference, then she had to take a few risks.

And, when she entered Starport Suite 1313—a small docking bay with no droids and barely any sign of intelligent life, hinting at just how deserted and lonesome this place was—she realized that this risk was also, probably, a mistake.

Because when she descended the gangway of her light-craft, she found herself nose-to-nose with General Hux, of The First Order. His eyes widened slightly, his jaw snapped open, and he reared back at the sight of her.

“What are you—”

Rose didn’t have time to think. Only to act. And in one swift movement, before he could even finish her sentence, she jabbed her electro-shock prod directly into his neck.

About an hour later, she’d managed to rig together an hover-gurney with some spare—and some 100% illegal—parts she’d found lying around the hangar, slide him onto it, and lock him in a pair of standard-issue resistance binders that were kept in the cockpit of her light craft. With every turn of a screw, with every tightening bolt, she remembered everyone that this man had hurt. Everyone his rein of terror affected. Finn. Her sister. Millions upon millions of others.

She was going to take him back to The Resistance. And they were going to give him a little bit of justice. Getting to bind him and make him suffer a bit on the way? That was just icing on the cake. When she began moving the hover-gurney towards _The Rebel Queen_ , her captive only just began to stir.

“What-what are you doing? Did you hear me? I asked _what are you doing_?”

Oh, this was too good. He’d held her, helpless and captive, and ordered her executed. Now, he was totally and completely at her mercy. Without a trace of guilt clouding her head, she smirked as she led the gurney up the gangway and into her rusting-out ship, watching from overhead as he struggled against his restraints.  
  
“Taking you back to the Resistance,” she practically sang. “You know that they give you a full cask of Dorian Quill if you catch a First Order soldier alive? I might even get a medal, seeing as you’re a General.”

  
“I demand that you release me _at once_ ,” he hissed. Rose merely shrugged.  
  
“I was a captive of The First Order once. You didn’t let me go when you had the chance.”  
  
The struggling slowed. Hux cleared his throat. It was as good as an admission. “…My feelings have since changed.”  
  
“I was under the impression that the First Order didn’t have feelings.”  
  
“Then perhaps that would explain why I’m here.”

Finally in the belly of the ship, Rose pressed one of the collapse keys on the side of the gurney, forcing Hux into a sitting position. The man grunted in pain, but she didn’t so much as flinch.

A coded message sent out into sub-space by a First Order officer…? It was either too good to be true or exactly the kind of hope they needed to win this war.  
  
“I’m listening.” Taking a seat in one of the jump-seats situated in the belly of the ship, she waved her electro-shock prod in his direction. “But just remember how much this thing hurts when it takes you down, so I’d think twice before you did anything you’ll regret.”  
  
“I require the help of The Resistance. You will take me to General Leia Organa at once and we will discuss terms and ends.” Rolling her eyes, Rose prodded him with her machine, not enough to take him out, but enough to smart. He twitched in pain, his own eyes widening. How strange to think that _this_ was the man half of the galaxy feared. Stranger still to think that they were _right_ to fear him. “What was that for?”

“Wasting my time,” Rose intoned. “You’re a _known_ First Order General who ordered the destruction of an entire star system. I’m not taking you to General Organa. Or, I will, but you’ll be unconscious for the ride.” She gestured to the prod again, taking small delight in the way his eyes widened. “Now, you have as much time as it takes for this thing to recharge to get talking.”  
  
The muscles in Hux’s jaw twitched, as if he wanted to argue before remembering that he wasn’t in a position to do so. “The Supreme Leader must be stopped. And I will do everything in my power to see that this happens. Even this. I propose a…” He swallowed, hard. “…A strategic détente between myself and your Resistance armies for the time being, wherein I will protect you from the inside of the First Order, passing along information and such, and in return, you will help me defeat Ren.”

Rose couldn’t believe what she was hearing. The part about infighting in The First Order? Chaos and plotting and assassination conspiracies? Sure, all that she could believe. But Hux’s offer…? Too good to be true.  
  
“You want to turn spy.”  
  
“I want to do no such thing.” Hux tossed his chin. “Becoming a spy is beneath the dignity of an Officer of the First Order.”  
  
“What you just described is exactly what a spy does.”  
  
“A spy would be fighting for your side. I am fighting for my _own_ side. What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

Rose hadn’t realized that everything going on inside of her soul was playing out across her face. But hey, she had the guy tied up and at her mercy. She might as well be honest with him. All the better because she knew her pity would be worse torture than the electro-shock prod.

“I don’t think I’ve ever felt as bad for my enemy as I do now, standing here, staring at you. What a small, sad way to live. Here you are, asking for help from The Resistance but you haven’t changed since the last time I saw you. Do you even remember me?”

The silence between her question and his response choked her. She watched as he carefully avoided her eyeline, choosing instead to stare at some loose wiring on a nearby wall-panel.

“…No,” he finally said.  
  
“You tried to have me killed,” she reminded him.  
  
“I have rather a lot of people killed. It’s one of the perks of the job. I do not remember you.”

The words tugged at a barely stitched-up wound. Her friends got to be important. Venerated. She was stuck on desk duty, hardly important to anyone. She hadn’t even managed to make an impression on the man who’d almost killed her. Her throat tightened. She gripped the bars of the hover-gurney and started moving him out of her ship.

She could be a hero. She could help save everything she loved. And she was going to use General Hux to do it.   
  
“Here’s how this goes. You’ll report to me, and me only. Once you have some valuable intel that pans out, we’ll _consider_ going forward with this. Do you understand?”

“Perfectly. I am gratified that you could see my way in this matter.”  
  
“Listen.” She ground the gurney to a halt. Locked eyes with the man staring up at her. “Listen to me and listen good. The _second_ Kylo Ren is gone, you’re next. I’m going to save the galaxy from you. Got that?”

Hux nodded once. “Likewise, I’m sure.”  
  
“Good. My name is Rose Tico. I’m a known Resistance Fugitive in nine star systems. And starting right now, I’m your only hope.”  
  
“I look forward to working with you, Miss Tico.”

Something about the way he’d said _Miss Tico_ …It was something between a taunt and a prayer, and she immediately resented the way it sent shivers down her spine. When his gurney found the bottom of the hangar, she released it and began walking back into her ship alone, throwing words out over her shoulder.

“Contact me on our frequency when you have something for me. Not a minute before then.”

Her boots made steady, solid _thump, thump, thumps_ on the gangway as she retreated up it, but even they couldn’t drown out the sound of General Hux calling after her.

“Wait. Miss Tico. Aren’t you going to unbind me? _Miss Tico_!”

She laughed about that all the way through Hyperspace.


	2. Chapter 2

Part Three: Every Word is a Love Letter

(In Which Decoding Transmissions Becomes Armitage Hux’s Favorite Pastime.)

Armitage Hux told himself that this was for the good of The First Order. That all of this was a grand game he played for the glory of their future Empire. He would lead them into a grand and glorious tomorrow, once he had Kylo Ren out of the way.

That didn’t explain why, every cycle when his shift on The Bridge ended, he rushed back to his quarters—faster than was strictly speaking necessary—so he could sit at the oversized comm system across from his bed, slip the decoding chip from the chain around his neck, and communicate with Miss Rose Tico.

He knew it shouldn’t have brought him any pleasure. And any time he felt even the slightest thrill at her words, he assured himself that this was merely the warm glow that comes from victory. After all, every successful mission that The Resistance ran against Kylo Ren and his knights was another nail in the Supreme Leader’s coffin.

But in that split second between feeling and logic, he knew the truth. He actually _enjoyed_ talking to her. Their verbal war followed him throughout the day, and he practiced what he might type to her that evening when he finally returned to the Comm. 

He would never admit—not to himself, not to anyone— how thoroughly he looked forward to speaking with her. To imagining her small, brave voice snapping retorts at him like blaster fire. To fantasizing about how her eyes would blaze when she delivered her latest verbal blow.

It was the one time of day when General Hux didn’t feel much like a General. He felt like a man. And though that should have disturbed him, he couldn’t help but crave it.

He hadn’t felt like a man in so long. He hadn’t allowed himself the luxury; being a monster was

easier. Men had feelings. Men had dreams. Monsters had victims. Monsters had ambitions.

Men won hearts. Monsters won wars.

During their communications, he always addressed her as M.T. Miss Tico. H for Hux was sufficient for him. No need for anything more personal than that. The messages flew between them, day-cycle after day-cycle, and the war intensified around them, but once Hux found himself in his quarters, staring at her decoded messages under the watchful eye of Millicent, his cat, all he could think about was her.

In an entirely professional way, of course. In the manner that a man might think of his temporarily aligned ally. Nothing more.

> _M.T. A gift is waiting for you at the below coordinates. Everything you should need for an explosively good time. Yours, H._

In other cases, Armitage might have cringed at calling himself “Yours.” He didn’t belong to anyone but The First Order. But when he’d penned his first correspondence, he’d typed the word quite by accident and never found it in himself to correct the error.

He found it quite impossible to stop now. He told himself, again and again, that calling himself Miss Tico’s was really just a formal informality, like two enemies who shook hands to prove that neither of them was carrying a weapon.

He told himself that. Armitage had no interest in whether it was the truth or not.

> _Your gift has been collected and enjoyed. I’m sure you saw the holo-vid of the fiery celebration. The fireworks were to die for. M.T._

> _M.T., Aren’t expressions of gratitude generally sent after the arrival of a gift? Also, please note that you are cordially invited to large gathering at the below address. I would dress for the climate and bring plenty of party favors. Yours, H._
> 
> _H., You should be glad I didn’t “express my gratitude” last time I saw you. I would have left you with a few gifts of my own. Black and blue ones, mostly. M.T._

Here in the safety of his quarters, he allowed a small chuckle to pass his lips. In the back of his mind, he could hear his father’s voice, warning him against such frivolous displays, but he couldn’t help it.

Miss Tico had earned his smile. Who has he to deny her, especially a star system away, where she couldn’t see that she’d won their little exchange? 

> _M.T., Again, such a spirited response to a mere question. I’m surprised you even need my gifts to make sparks fly. You could light up an entire star system with nothing but your temper. Please find attached a comprehensive data-list of uninvited “guests” currently attending your party. Yours, H._

When typing that particular message, Hux’s fingers paused before typing the word “temper.” There were many things about Miss Rose Tico that could light an entire star system. The fire in her eyes, for one thing.

He quickly typed “temper” and let the sound of his fingers dancing along the sleek holo-keys drive him away from that particular thought. No, he assured himself, it hadn’t been an uncharacteristic compliment about a woman’s appearance. It was simply a statement of fact. He was nothing if not honest where facts were concerned, even if those facts _seemed_ sentimental.

To his surprise, though, Rose didn’t counter him with one of her signature retorts. She didn’t tell him that his hair looked like a galaxy on fire or remind him that he was the only one in their relationship with experience destroying star systems.

She didn’t say anything. Not at all. Not for days. He would return to their frequency at their usual time, checking for any signs of a message or even the slightest indication that she had so much as begun typing one, only to find merciless, brutal, unrelenting silence.

The bags beneath his eyes deepened as sleepless nights passed. Reports regarding current Resistance piled up all around him as he searched for any hint of what might have happened to her. Eating became a chore. Stims and caf became his most constant companions.

He told himself that losing her would mean losing his connection to The Resistance. It would mean starting over in his plot to sabotage Kylo Ren. Nothing more.

As the days and nights dragged on and the cycles blurred into each other, as his heartbeat rushed from his Stim diet and as Millicent began nestling herself at his feet, worriedly, he ran through his options. 

Should he…should he go in search of her? He could make it look quite normal if he wanted, really. Tell his officers that he was going on an undercover mission to meet one of their Resistance contacts, take a transport to her last known location, sniff around long enough to see that she was alive, and then leave before she would ever know he was there.

At least then, perhaps, if he knew for sure that she’d dropped their communications because she hated him…if he was absolutely certain that she was alive and well and not, as his mind kept imagining, floating lifelessly somewhere in space, perhaps he could go back to the life he’d led before the messages began. Perhaps he could remember her as the troublesome resistance scum who called him names and left him for dead; perhaps he could forget her as the bright-eyed, endlessly hopeful mechanic who always seemed to slip into his mind on those rare nights when his mind let him dream.

But he couldn’t. Going after her, seeking her out, was as good as a death sentence. And Armitage Hux wanted to keep living, thank you very much. He couldn’t risk it – not for anyone.

On the day he’d finally given up, on the day he’d finally stopped going to his Comm station to listen for her, _that_ was the day when she returned.

Their messages were all digital. Yet, he could still hear her voice in the silence of his room as clearly and as heart-breakingly small as if she’d spoken it directly behind him.

> _…One of those uninvited “guests” was my friend. How did I not know?_

This was the first time she’d ever spoken to him about anything other than their mission. She wasn’t one for personal matters. Wasn’t one for chit-chat. Insults and swipes and confirmation of completed missions? Yes.

But opening herself up to the monster? No. She’d never done that before.

And Hux…Hux stared at those blinking words on his Comm screen for longer than he would have ever admitted.

War was pain. War was casualties and betrayal and heartbreak. That’s why he’d joined The First Order, after all. To bring order from chaos. To give meaning to a messy, chaotic world that trampled anyone small and weak. He’d never regretted that choice before, not even when the nightmares began and the screaming echoed in his mind like a never-ending children’s song. But as he imagined Rose sitting there, staring at the screen with tears in her eyes and trembling lips, he suddenly wished that war wasn’t pain. That it wasn’t casualties and betrayal and heartbreak.

He wished that he could take it all back.

What was this feeling in his chest? This throbbing, aching emptiness that threatened to consume him?

His cheeks flooded with heat as he shoved himself away from the Comm desk. Rose was a soldier. She should have known the consequences of friendship. That was The Resistance’s problem. They had no sense of discipline – militarily or emotionally, it seemed. He had half a mind to dismiss her misery and return to their mission posthaste. That would be the rational, reasonable thing to do in this situation. Hux, after all, wasn’t very good with emotions. Emotions were like the galaxy – messy and chaotic and beyond all logic. He tried his best never to acknowledge his own if he could help it.

Knowledge and war studies training told him to never help an enemy. Never to interrupt when one was in the process of making a mistake. Still, he carefully reached for the holokeys and crafted a message.

> _M.T., I am not one to give advice. On this or any other subject. However, one with no friends is one who cannot be betrayed. I have found this advice useful in my journey. Yours, H._

The screen blinked with that message for a few moments, then, a reply appeared.

> _H., You know what? That explains so much about you. M.T._

> _M.T., What do you mean? Yours, H._

> _H., If you haven’t let anyone near enough to hurt you, then no wonder you’re so broken. You have no idea what it means to save something you love. I am so sorry. M.T._

She was sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. The word pulsed like an open wound, throbbing with each blink that briefly interrupted his staring at the simple phrase. _I am so sorry_.

He’d destroyed a Star System. He’d done the unforgivable to become the man he was today. He’d been there when, according to their intel, her sister had died. And yet… _she_ was the one who felt sorry?

No one had ever offered him such compassion before. He’d heard Rebel Speeches and impassioned condemnations of The First Order by the scoreful. But this…this was different. She had every reason to hate him, but here she was…offering a hand of kindness out to him anyway.

In that moment, it was as if a Resistance Cruiser had done a hyperspace jump straight through him. He could no longer explain away, with his cool facts and easy logic, these thoughts about Rose Tico because they weren’t thoughts at all. They were feelings.

He felt something for her. Something deeper than he was willing to explore.

In one ragged gesture, Hux ripped the Comm chip from his viewer, causing the screen to go blank. How had this happened? How had he gone from seeing her as a convenient enemy to _this_ , whatever _this_ was?

He didn’t know. But of one thing, he was absolutely certain. This couldn’t be allowed to continue. He wouldn’t—no, he _couldn’t_ —allow himself such an indulgence as feelings. Not for anyone. But especially not for Rose Tico. 

The Comm chip caught the brilliant, sterile light of his quarters, colors in the thin metal glinting and dancing, taunting him with everything they held. He closed his gloved palm around it, tightening his grip, fully intent on destroying it.

But just as quickly as the muscles tensed to shatter the fragile, tenuous connection to Miss Rose Tico, they relaxed. He would…he would need to keep the Comm Chip. To monitor the Resistance. Yes, of course. He need never speak to her again, but destroying the frequency altogether was the sort of impulsive and foolish tantrum Kylo Ren would have thrown.

Hux was better than that. Better than being ruled by his emotions…or his fear of them.

Once again, he threaded the Comm chip around his neck, where it rested beneath his uniform and above his heart, day in and day out.

Keeping up his end of the bargain was easy enough. He went through his days as usual, subtly steering Kylo Ren and his loyalists in all of the wrong directions while making sure that The Resistance lived to sabotage the Supreme Leader another day.

What did prove difficult? Spending his nights, watching the messages from Miss Tico pile up without responses.

> _H., Hope you saw the holo-stories about our latest encounter with your boss. Hope you were happier with the results than he was. M.T._

> _H., Going out on a run soon. Could use all the help we could get out here. M.T._

> _H., Just found a holo-card of you in a junk shop…What did you do to the imaging droid to deserve picture like that? M.T._

> _H., I assume you were the one who jammed those transmissions. I was on that transport. You saved us. M.T._

> _H., Haven’t heard from you in a while. Lothcat got your tongue? M.T._

> _H., Hello? Are you out there? I miss being able to sharpen my wit on a dull rock like you. M.T._

> _H., Is our comm link still functioning? M.T._

> _H.,_ _You have gone dark. Respond. M.T._

> _H., I haven’t heard from you. Please respond. M.T._

> _Please. I need to know you’re okay._

It was the last transmission she ever sent him. And he wanted nothing more than to be grateful for that. Disconnection was best. He was allowing himself to get too close, too distracted from his true goal. An association with Miss Rose Tico was not in his future; he only needed to use her to destroy his enemy. She was a means to an end, nothing more than a pawn in his masterful game.

But if that was true…why did he find himself going back to their correspondence, trailing his eyes over her words, carrying every keystroke with him until his felt like they were written upon his very bones? 


	3. Chapter 3

Part Four:

There are Rules of Engagement.

(In Which Rose Tico Sneaks Onto a Star Destroyer and Armitage Hux Loses It.)

Hux didn’t salute any of the Stormtroopers as he passed them. Not a single one. It wasn’t protocol, certainly, but he couldn’t bring himself to care at the moment. Damn protocol. Damn the Stormtroopers.

And damn whoever was currently lurking about in his quarters.

The small motion detector he’d installed when he’d first moved aboard _The Finalizer_ had snapped to life in his pocket during the final moments of his shift on The Bridge, and he’d wasted no time in marching to the nearest turbolift to take him down to the officer’s deck.

Hairs on the back of his neck raised on-end as he reached for his standard-issue blaster. Who could it be? A competitor amongst the higher ranks of the First Order? One of the Supreme Leader’s spies? Kylo Ren himself? Whoever it was, they had to be someone of extreme skill and dexterity, with the will and cunning of a ghost. If they could make it into _his_ quarters, they must have been there to kill him.

That knowledge settled into his bones, but as he waited outside of his pneumatic door, for a moment, ignoring the stormtroopers on patrol nearby and listening for any signs of life from within his walls, he shook it off. He would not be dying. Not today.

Finger on the trigger, he allowed himself into his quarters, where he immediately caught sight of a uniformed First Order figure, bent and examining something in the corner of the room. Hux leveled his blaster directly against the figure’s exposed neck.

“Stand up and face me, coward,” he hissed.

But then…something strange happened.

Millicent mewled.

The figure hadn’t been stalking in the shadows to murder him; the figure had been giving the curled-up cat scratches behind the ears.

And the figure wasn’t an assassin or a Knight of Ren. The figure, who turned around with a face so full of shock and sunshine that Hux thought he was going to burn from the intensity of it, was Rose Tico, dressed in the uniform of a First Order engineering worker.

At once, two thoughts occurred to him:

One: _I hate seeing her in that uniform._

 _Two: Miss Rose Tico is in my quarters. She is in my quarters and it isn’t a dream_.

He only barely managed to keep the blaster in his hand from clattering to the floor.

“Miss Tico!”

Her eyes widened. “You’re okay!”

  
Hux hissed again, this time in confusion rather than anger. “ _What_?”

The ruckus in his quarters must have alerted the patrolling Stormtroopers. The pneumatic doors hissed and the brilliant red lighting activated by their emergency access code practically blinded Hux, giving him only the briefest of moments to act.

In one swift movement, Hux swept Miss Tico off of her knees, pulling her close to him and holding her close—close enough that he could feel her soft breathing against his neck. He couldn’t have the Stormtroopers seeing her. Couldn’t have them take her into custody.

He didn’t know _why_ he couldn’t. She was Resistance Scum, after all. Surrendering an infiltrating Resistance agent was his duty. But still, he held her. Protected her.

Even in that split second, he couldn’t help but notice the way his every nerve ending electrified at her touch; the way holding her felt like touching the galaxy’s most brilliant, beautiful livewire. Her heartbeat—erratic, frantic—thundered against his chest. 

The pair stormtroopers hovered in the doorway, clearly surprised by the image before them. Hux cultivated the persona of a man who wouldn’t be caught dead with someone in his quarters, yet here he was, embracing someone in a First Order uniform. Just behind his bed. “Is everything alright, General?”

His stomach revolted against what he was about to say. Memories of his father—cruel, abusive, manipulative—and the women he’d hurt flooded his mind, but he tried his best to shove them out. Despite the heft and arrogance that he tainted his tone with, he made sure to hold Miss Tico as gently as he could manage—a silent reassurance that he wouldn’t hurt her.   
  
“Yes. I was just giving Initiate Kerix here her first _thorough_ review. If you don’t mind?”

“Yes, General.”

Within a handful of heartbeats, the stormtroopers retreated, plunging the room back into its normal, sterile lighting, and leaving he and Rose once again alone.

She shoved away from him, spitting her words accusingly in his direction. The sudden loss of her warmth sent an unfamiliar chill through his body, almost as if he wanted her to return to his arms immediately. But that couldn’t be right. It couldn’t be.

Hux straightened, adjusting his posture so he might lord over her, but her piercing stare made him feel as small as he’d ever felt before in his life. Despite the way he set his jaw and tried to embody the imposing, fearsome general he knew himself to be, when she looked at him like that…he couldn’t have felt less like it.   
  
“What are you doing here?” he asked, keeping a tight grip on his voice. _Control yourself, Hux. She can be nothing to you. Her presence here is nothing but an inconvenience. Anything else is treason._

“What am _I_ doing here? What are _you_ doing here?”   
  
“I won’t answer a question until mine is answered.”   
  
Rose made her approach, quick and fast and more intense than he’d ever seen her before. Instinct took over, and he matched her, step for backwards step, until his back hit the wall. She’d cornered him. “You went dark over our comm. I hadn’t heard from you. I thought you’d died or that they’d found you out.”   
  
Hux raised one distinguished eyebrow, giving her the kind of condescending dismissal he usually only reserved for his most hated underlings. _Push her away. As far away as she can go._ “So your brilliant plan was to sneak onto a _Star Destroyer_? To what end?”

“To rescue you, obviously.”

 _Obviously_. _Obviously!_ As though it were the simplest thing in the world. As if he actually meant something to her. As if she would worry about him if he’d gone.

The muscles in his chest constricted as, again, two realities hit him simultaneously.

 _One:_ She was here. She’d taken the risk. That meant something. Something he wasn’t willing to admit.

 _Two_ : The moment they found her here, she was as good as dead. And he couldn’t allow that to happen.

“Do you realize what could have happened to you up here?”

“Yes and I also realize what they would have done to _you_ if they caught you. That’s exactly why I’m here. I couldn’t let you get hurt.”

Her eyes were wide and painfully honest. Thank the stars he was the one who’d elected to conduct the spycraft around here. She would never have managed all the lies he did. That honesty, though, cut through him faster and sharper than any blaster bolt. She’d risked everything for him. Just to make sure he’d survived. The walls around his heart calcified. _Protect yourself. Protect your mission. Don’t give into sentiment. Don’t let yourself believe her._   
  
“Why? I mean nothing to you. I’m a means to an end and once you’re done, you’ll kill me just like Ren would,” he snapped.

“That’s not true.”

 _Miss Rose Tico is an idealist. She believes in you; she came to save you. Don’t be the kind of man worth saving_. Hux drew his lips into a sneer.

“If you came here because you think I’m some kind of hero for you to redeem, let me assure you, Miss Tico, I’m not. I’m no hero and I’m never going to become one.”  
  
“Everyone can be a hero.” She snorted and rolled her eyes. “Even you.”

There it was again. That conviction. He couldn’t believe in it, couldn’t see her point of view, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t fascinated by her belief in lost causes.

“What makes you so sure?”

Her lips were so close to his. She pressed her chest to his, spoke softly and clearly. Almost arrogantly. Like she knew something he didn’t know. “Because a man beyond redemption wouldn’t be worrying about my life. And he wouldn’t have put down his blaster. There’s good in you. I think you know that.”

“Good in a man who had his own father killed? Good in a man who destroyed a star system?”

Rose’s forehead knit into wrinkles. “I don’t need to be lectured about what you’ve done. I did the research on you before I sent that first message. You were there when my sister was killed.”

 _Oh._ She’d known. She’d known all along and still…here she was. Risking her life to save him. He’d always believed that the Resistance was made up of idealistic fools, dreamers who didn’t understand the order of the Galaxy. 

Maybe…maybe _he_ was the one who hadn’t understood.

“I…” He swallowed, hard, as she stepped away, running a hand through her short-cut, dark hair. A moment ago, he’d wanted to hurt her, to see her run from him as fast as she could. And he still wanted that. But not for the same reasons. “You must give up your hope, Miss Tico. Or the pain of being disappointed might kill you.”   
  
Rose let out a dry, tired chuckle. Her fingers ran across the top of Millicent’s head. Kind and caring as always. “There you go again. Worrying about my life.”

Hux’s breath caught in his throat. Yes. He was worried about her. Very worried indeed. Very worried that she felt more for him than he deserved. Unacceptable. The girl with stars for eyes and a mind greater than the entire galaxy put together wasn’t made for the monster in the shadows.

Arranging his face into a tight mask, he touched her on the shoulder, savoring the brief, gloved contact and trying to memorize everything about her that he could. Becoming the man who could deserve her was impossible. Beyond even his wildest calculations and plans. This would be their goodbye. And he wanted to hold onto it for all the days of his life.   
  
“Come. We must get you back planet-side. You can contact your Resistance from there.”

He told himself it was to protect their spy-link. He told himself it was in his official interest to let her live. He told himself a great many things. But he knew they were all lies. He just wanted to see her one last time. 


	4. Chapter 4

Part Five: There is no Passion.

(In Which Armitage Hux Endures a Near-Life Experience)

It was surprisingly easy to jump ship from the decks of the Star Destroyer down to Rakata Prime. Still in her uniform, Rose was able to walk, head down, eyes at the floor, behind Hux all the way to a small transport, where he informed the Stormtroopers that he was returning to the planet’s surface to deliver an important message to the local governors in person.

The problem, though, was not getting back to the planet. It was going to be getting away from it. No sooner had they landed in the mountainous outskirts of a planet called Lekaara than a storm descended upon them, swirling lower and lower until they both knew that the winds were going to keep them from getting any further.

Going back to the ship was impossible, too. The mountain pass they’d traversed to get even this far would be impassable now that the icy sheets of water had started to fall.

Her clothes were sticking to her, the frozen water that slapped her skin descending all the way down to her bones.

Hux had made his feelings on his redemption and her help clear. Even if she saw flickers of conflict within him, he’d drawn a line. He would help her only as long as she helped him with their spy games, with the destruction of Kylo Ren.

Good. Fine. You know what? Better than fine. It was safe. That knowledge gave her a cold kind of comfort. Maybe it was better not to waste her hope on someone, for him to declare the depths of his shallowness now rather than later.

Even if he’d rescued her from the ship, she was now saved from resting her faith in him…or any of the daydreams she’d had about them. She wasn’t going to indulge in any grand, romantic, hopeful delusions about the First Order Officer and the lowly Resistance nobody. That sort of thing was for contraband holo-novels. Not real life.

“The storm will keep any ships from coming in or out,” she called over the roar of the weather. A crash of lightning sparked in the near distance. “We should part ways until we are both able to transport off-planet tomorrow.”

But then, he had to go and give her hope again. Infuriating, confusing man.

“If we don’t get out of this storm, we’re both going to die,” Hux informed her.   
  
Rose checked the detection mechanism on her wrist-cuff, which was slightly fritzing in the storm. She protested, “But the township is only—”

_Too far._ It was too far, and they both knew it. She was already shivering. Her jaw ached from the effort it took to keep her teeth from chattering. Making it to the next township in this weather and in her condition?

It would kill her.

That’s when she felt a hand—strong and shaking, but whether from the cold or from something else, she wasn’t sure—as it slipped in hers, and pulled her into the dark stillness of a nearby cave. 

“Oh, just get in here. I’m not going to let you die of exposure when I could have just let the First Order kill you.” 

A few minutes later, they were sitting beside a small fire she’d constructed with a barely-functional pocket-emitter. The flames were small, warm, and not nearly enough to make her feel human again. He, on the other hand, settled onto a rock across the fire from her, warm and dry in his that ridiculous, oversized First Order coat of his.

But still, despite the howling winds outside of the cave and the silence that stretched between them like a delicate sheet of glass, she couldn’t help the little spark of joy that flamed in her heart. She _hadn’t_ been wrong. There was something good inside of Armitage Hux.

What had started out as cold, merciless calculation on his part. But…she wasn’t sure that was still the case. 

“What do you have to smile about?” Hux asked, reaching for a nearby handful of broken twigs and tossing them onto the flames.

“You could have given me up. You could have left me to die in the snow. You could have turned me over to the local authorities. A thousand ways to get rid of a Resistance agent…but you’re protecting me.”

“You are looking for answers where there aren’t any, Miss Tico. I required the use of someone within The Resistance for my purposes. And you have served that purpose well. It would be a great miscalculation, giving you up so easily.”

She could have pointed out that he’d put him and his cause at greater risk by trying to return her to The Resistance. She could have pointed out that anyone from The Resistance would have been useful to him. She could have pointed out that she’d seen some of his engineering work, and calculations weren’t exactly his strong suit. She was better.

And by her calculation, being alone in this cave with one of the most feared men in the Galaxy was the only chance she’d ever have to change his mind, not to mention his heart. She had to take that risk.

“You’re not going to push me away. You tried on the ship, but you’re not going to try again here.” She leveled her gaze at him through the growing flames, an action that almost immediately caused him to turn away. “You’re still afraid, Hux. But you don’t have to be. Think of all the good you could do if you joined us. You could topple the First Order.”

“I’ve given _everything_ for the First Order,” he hissed. 

“And what has it given you?”

The rain and the emptiness in his eyes were the only answers she received. Shivering in deeper to herself, she tried to focus on him, tried to focus on anything that wasn’t the tingling numbness spreading through her fingers or the shaking her of her lips. That proved impossible when a broken, but desperately trying not to be, voice reached out to her.   
  
“You don’t look well.”

“What does it matter? You’ll just kill me and the rest of my Resistance scum one day. Why shouldn’t I just die here?”

“…Of course, you’re right.”

They both sank deeper into their positions, both held themselves closer. She watched as Hux straightened in the refined posture of a general, his eyes only occasionally darting in her direction.

The silence lingered again. Longer. And longer. And longer. The edges of Rose’s vision were starting to fuzz, but she blinked and tried to keep her focus.

Hux shifted, clearing his throat. “You should be closer to the fire.”

  
  
“Why? If I die tonight, that’s one less foot soldier for you to massacre later.”

  
“Really!” He scoffed. “Where is your sense of self-preservation?”

“Must have left it with my coat,” Rose snarked.

If she was going to die tonight, she might as well do it trying to save the Galaxy, right? Clutching her wet body closer in on itself, she decidedly _refused_ to move any closer to the fire.

If he wanted her to live, then he’d have to save her. Plain and simple.

“Your teeth are chattering. You’ll freeze to death.”

“So? You hate me. What should it matter that I die?”

“Miss Tico—”

His eyes were pleading now. Frightened. She pretended she didn’t notice. “What happened to Resistance Scum? Space Garbage? Rebellious cur?”

_“I don’t want you to die!”_

The desperation in his voice shook the rock walls around them. Or maybe that was just Rose’s hallucinating mind gilding the moment. In either case, she knew she didn’t have enough imagination to dream up the begging blue of his eyes or the way he jumped to his feet as if he could fight off death itself.

“That wasn’t—I” Her teeth were chattering so hard, she had to take a significant break before she could even finish the quip. “so hard, now, was it?”

Hux didn’t answer her. Instead, he hovered over her, his face running through an array of emotions before he finally reached out an awkward, uncertain hand.

She’d never seen him uncertain before, but she found a certain delight in the way that he tried to cover it up with militaristic professionalism. Despite the fact that his thoughts stayed firmly inside of his head, she could almost imagine his stuffy, overly-practiced internal monologue giving him a pep-talk. _Yes. All business. No need to let the girl know you might actually like seeing her in her undergarments._

“I think you’ll need to take the clothes off. We’ll need to share body heat.”

“You sound heartbroken,” Rose said, propping her weak body up against a nearby rock. Her muscles weighed down heavy, making every gesture an almost impossible chore. Hux turned away from her as he disrobed, but she couldn’t tell if it was to give her privacy or to ensure some for himself.

Either way, she couldn’t take her eyes off of the entrancing image of him… His tall body cast a long shadow on the far cave wall, a shadow that danced with him as he relieved himself of his coat, gloves, trousers, dress shirt….

“I am not in the habit of appearing even half-nude before anyone else.”

“I could close my eyes if you want. But you…”

The compliment she’d intended to give— _you’re not half bad, for a First Order lackey—_ died in her throat. It wasn’t right. It wasn’t even close to truthful, either. He was slender, yes, far from the propagandistic ideal of a First Order Strong Man, but still, she was transfixed by the coiled muscles of his form, by the way the golden light of the fire captured seemingly thousands of silvered scars along every inch of his flesh, by the resilience of the skin and the man who carried it every day.

She wanted to kiss each of those scars. Wanted to know their stories. Or to sit in the silence of a man who didn’t want to share them.

“You know,” she said, struggling to keep a slur out of her voice as her jaw began to rebel against the cold. “You’re actually very beautiful.”   
  


Hux rushed back to her side, where he lowered himself to the ground and settled himself behind her. He carried only his top coat, which due to weather proofing, hadn’t even a drop of rain anywhere to be found on it. “I don’t need your flattery.”

“Good because I didn’t offer any.”

_I am not in the habit of appearing half-nude…I don’t need your flattery_. His hands, when they finally wrapped around her, were not trembling from the cold. His gloves had kept him plenty warm.

He was terrified. Terrified of being seen by her, terrified of her touch, and yet, he’d braved it for her.

Carefully, he wrapped them both in the warm confines of the coat and wrapped himself around her, until she was aware of every line and curve of his body. He may have been able to hide his reaction to her compliment earlier, but, just like she couldn’t hide the ion-cannon rumble of her own heart, he couldn’t hide the way his skin flushed at her touch. The way his body stiffened, then relaxed, when she pulled him even closer, nestling herself into him.

“Scars show that you survived, you know,” she whispered after a moment of silence.

Idly, she thumbed one of the scars on his left arm, which reached protectively across her chest.

His voice was a low rumble that touched the deepest parts of her. “Maybe it would have been better if I hadn’t.”

“I wouldn’t have survived tonight without you. I’m glad you’re still here.”

With his chest pressed so tightly against hers, she couldn’t miss the way his heart sped up, slamming against his rib cage as though it wanted to break free. A moment later, he breathed against her ear, stoic as ever but with a fresh, unfamiliar waver: “I’m certain this goes without saying, but this changes nothing.”

Teeth chatter subsiding, Rose managed to relax into Hux’s arms and smile. It was so strange, so unreal, to be here. But she couldn’t bring herself to regret it. Instead, she teased him. Had he ever been teased before? “Right. Just two sworn enemies, casually keeping each other alive. Definitely doesn’t change a thing.”

Hands—one resting on her shoulder, the other around her waist—softened. The brush of skin against her skin awakened her just when he said: “We should really get some sleep, Miss Tico.” 

“You know, if we’re going to die tonight, you might as well call me Rose.”   
  
A pause. And then, against all odds, he decided to trust her. “Armitage. My name is Armitage.”

“Well, goodnight, Armitage. Don’t kill me in my sleep, okay?”   
  
Was that a laugh she’d heard? Or her imagination caught in the wind? “Yes. Goodnight.”

Slowly, she allowed her eyes to close and her breathing to steady. She wasn’t going to sleep. Not by a long-shot. But she did want to know if _he_ would. Did he trust her enough to lose himself to sleep? If he did, would he dream?

What would Armitage Hux dream about?

She was imagining it, making a list of all the possibilities, and somewhere between _an endless sea of perfectly pressed, collared shirts_ and _an obsidian throne from which he can dictate that everyone in the galaxy uses proper Grammar_ —a small voice broke the stillness of the night.

“Rose? Rose?”

Rose’s heart jumped, but she forced herself to keep up the act of sleep. When she didn’t stir, he held her almost imperceptibly closer. It took all the strength she had not to giggle when his lips brushed her hair, her ear; when he whispered into the night under the promise that she was asleep.

“I did remember you. From the moment you left me on _The Supremacy_ , you and your words were never far from my thoughts. I cannot be saved. But perhaps…perhaps you can be. Perhaps what we love _can_ be saved.” 

Soon after, soft, gentle snores told Rose that he was asleep. He didn’t let her go, though. Even in sleep, he held onto her as if she were the only thing tethering him to the universe’s light.

Rose’s mind raced, but the soft touch of Armitage Hux was so soft, so sweet, so _safe_ , that she gave herself over to sleep anyway.

The next morning, they dressed in silence and made their preparations separately. The storm had passed sometime in the night, leaving them both exposed in the light of the morning sun.

Not that Rose minded. The Light looked good on Armitage.

“You know,” Rose said, finishing up the laces on her boots and heading for the cave’s exit. “There’s hope for you yet. And congratulations. We live to love another day.” 

Hux spun on her, dizzied by the play on words. “That’s not how that expression goes—”

But by the time he turned around, Rose was already gone. The spark of hope he’d ignited inside of her was now a full, raging fire, and it kept her warm all the way back to Ajan Kloss.


	5. Chapter 5

Part Six: A Spy is a Monster by a Different Name.

(In Which Rose Tico gets Grounded.)

When Rose finally returned to Ajan Kloss, she knew she was going to have some explaining to do. She’d managed to retrieve the jumper transport she’d taken off-base days ago, and she’d done her best to erase the ship’s memory of where she’d been. But she should have known there was no hiding from the spies of General Leia Organa.

Or the woman herself.

After all, she did know how to use The Force. 

“You ran off with a _First Order General_?”

Rose shifted on the crate she was using as a makeshift chair in front of The General’s desk. All around her, the ashen, disappointed faces of friends and colleagues watched on. “It doesn’t sound good when you say it like that.”   
  
“That’s because it _isn’t_ good. Do you have space slugs in your head?”

Ever since she’d been a child, Rose had listened to the stories of the famed Leia Organa, a princess who led not one revolution, but two. The General had always been one of Rose’s heroes, and Rose respected her and all of her commands.

Until now. Now, she _knew_ that there was hope for Armitage. She knew that there was something there in him, a flicker of goodness that could spark and light the entire First Order ablaze. He had handed them fistfuls of matches already. Good intel. Saved lives.

This risk had been worth it.

Yeah, maybe she’d begun this entire escapade hastily. And sure, she probably should have told everyone—especially General Organa—about her spy contact. And okay, maybe she’d done it because she was restless and not thinking straight and desperate to be her own hero. But that didn’t mean she’d done anything wrong. Rose hissed in a breath, stared at a hole in her gloves, and tried to speak as clearly and as calmly as she possibly could, trying to get The General to listen to her reason.

“General Organa, he reached out, I made contact, and I wanted to make sure the intel was good before we established official connections.”   
  
“Official connections like the ones you made in the ice caves of Rakata Prime?”

The words were made up of the dry and brittle gallows humor that General Organa favored, but they might as well have been a punch straight to Rose’s gut. Heat flooded her cheeks. She could barely get the words out. “I was trying to help. I want to help us win.”

General Organa’s jaw softened. The woman looked so, _so_ tired. Defeated, even. “You’re grounded. You’re off flight duty. You’re off comms. I don’t want you out of my sight, do you understand?”

Rose hopped to her feet to protest. Off comms? No, she couldn’t do that to Hux. She just couldn’t. “General, you don’t understand—”

  
“We are _all_ trying to do our best here, Rose. And you have been a valuable member of this Resistance. I can’t lose you to them.” The woman tightened her grip on her cane until the knuckles of her fingers turned white. Her eyes were as soft, as sad, as pleading as Rose had ever seen. “I can’t.”

Rose’s mind returned to a memory, a memory of a story Poe Dameron had once told her. After the Battle of Crait, Dameron approached Rose and apologized for what he’d done to her sister, apologized that his hubris and his orders had brought her down. He told her, _Rose, I want to tell you that your sister is a hero. And she is. But when we returned from that mission, the General told me that they were dead heroes with no leaders. I’m sorry that I made it that way._

The General didn’t want Rose to end up the way of her sister. The way of so many of their friends and loved ones. No more dead heroes. Rose nodded, and began to back out of the room. 

“Yes, General.”

But with every step, her strength resolved.

Poe said that his sister hadn’t come home a living hero because he hadn’t been a leader. Well, Rose wasn’t going to let that happen again.

She was going to help win this war. And this time, they would have their Force-damned heroic happy ending.

* * *

Part Seven: There is a Place. I’ll Meet You There.

(In Which Armitage Hux Must Choose)

Halfway across the system, Armitage Hux stared at his comm system with blank, tired eyes. He’d already pulled in half a dozen technicians to inspect the device for faults. But the longer he stared, the more the truth settled into his bones.

She was through with him. She’d finally woken up and realized that he was beyond salvation, beyond her precious hope, beyond that love she spoke so eloquently about. He _was_ the monster she’d called him when they’d first met.

It broke Hux’s soul into a constellation of pieces. Only, unlike stars, these were not bright, luminous fragments that could light a pathway through space. These were dark, black, the emptiness of space itself.

Perhaps she’d made it back to The Resistance and come to her senses. Perhaps she finally realized that he couldn’t be saved.

Hux went back to the grind of his daily routine. Arguments with Pryde. Conflict with Ren. Dreaming of dark eyes and soft skin beneath his hands and kind words from sweet lips. He tried to bury the parts of himself that she’d awakened. Tried to go back to the man he’d been when he’d first met her in that interrogation suite.

But then…then, he heard that there were Resistance prisoners on board.

He could let them die. A Wookiee and two human men had been captured; it wasn’t even like he would see her again if he went to investigate these hostages himself. Their deaths would be swift and painless, delivered at the hand of expertly trained stormtroopers.

But then, as he stared at his own reflection in the glass viewport of The Bridge, Hux couldn’t hlp but hear Rose’s voice in the back of his head.

_You’re actually quite beautiful_ , she’d told him.

_You could bring down the First Order_ , she’d said.

_Everyone can be a hero. Even you_.

Moments later, he entered the room where the execution was to take place, his heart hammering in his ears and the sound of Rose’s soft, sweet voice raising louder and louder, until it was the only thing he could think about.

He would probably die once he’d done this. They would kill him for this treachery. It was mutiny. It would make him a traitor.

But still, he had to do it.

When he entered the room and the pneumatic doors hissed closed behind him, Hux addressed the Stormtroopers.

“Actually, I’d like to do this myself.”

They handed over their weapons. And in two swift moves, he delivered blows that wouldn’t kill them, but would incapacitate them long enough to get the Resistance soldiers off of the ship.

Then, when the captives dropped their jaws like shocked puppets, Hux blurted out the one thing he swore he’d never say out loud. “I’m the spy!”

“What?”

“You?”

But there was no time for their shock and awe. The timer on his life was running short; it would only be a matter of time before the security cameras in this sector captured the holo-footage of what he’d just done.

“We don’t have much time.”

Sure enough, right on cue, the cool, serene voice of the intercom system broke out in time with the lights and the alarms.

“Security breach. Security Breach in Sector Eight. Apprehend Armitage Hux. I repeat. Apprehend Armitage Hux.”

Together, they ran towards the hangar bay, Hux covering them all with his blaster. He tried not to think about what would come next, about the swift death that was running straight in his direction. He tried not to think about what cold darkness waited for him on the other side, about whether Rose would miss him or even shed a tear when he was gone.

After all, she’d abandoned their comm link. She probably hated him now, realized what a monster he was.

It didn’t matter. He didn’t care if she loved him or thought of him, only that he loved her and that she would be safe. He’d done this to save her, to save her cause, to save the hope that had changed his life and his heart.

When they finally reached the hangar, Hux caught sight of the Millenium Falcon—that wretched ship—and hung back before the three could make their way down to it. He readjusted his grip on his weapon. He would have to hold the Stormtroopers off to give them a decent shot at making it out of here alive.   
  


“Well, gentlemen, Wookie,” he said, breathing heavily. “I shall have to make my stand here.”   
  
The pilot, Dameron, narrowed his eyes. “Why are you doing this?”

Hux’s breath caught. There wasn’t enough time to explain everything. Only the part that mattered. He cleared his throat as emotion threatened to well up in his voice. “If you…If you see Miss Rose Tico, please tell her that I tried to save what I love.”

Dameron shook his head in confusion. “And that is?”

“ _Her_ , obviously.”

But then, from the other end of the hallway, a voice from his dreams answered him. And he turned around to see Rose Tico, dressed in her military finest, staring at him with a breathless smirk.   
  
“Why don’t you tell her yourself?”

Hux could barely get his mouth around her name. His heart…that broken muscle in the middle of his chest…suddenly roared back to life. “Rose?”

Their reunion shattered, though, when the modulated voices of Stormtroopers broke through the air.

“Hux! Get him!”

The bullet was quick. Straight into his gut. Hux staggered back, straight into the strong, warm arms of Miss Rose Tico, whose face swam above his like some distant, parting angel.

The last thing he saw was her rolling her eyes, and the last thing he heard as the darkness took him was, “Force, always with the dramatics! Chewie! Little help here!”

  
He’d thought he would die. Part of him wanted to die. It was what he deserved. He hadn’t wanted to let Rose go, but he knew it was best for her. Best for her not to be attached to someone like him.

But when he resurfaced from the darkness, it was to the sound of a familiar voice singing a lullaby from Hayes Minor. It was the most beautiful sound he’d ever heard. He let it carry him back to consciousness.

The pain in his body was excruciating. But still, he couldn’t help but open his mouth and quip, “So. Do you think they’ll still give you that medal for bringing in a First Order General?”

Rose’s pink lips parted in surprise as she looked down to see him there, looking up at her with all of the hope and promise of a won war. She shook her head, tutting. “I didn’t bring in a First Order General. I brought home a Resistance spy.”

“They all must hate me, your Resistance.”   
  
“You’re part of the reason they’re alive.”

“And _you_ are the reason I’m alive. Now, I suppose your reward is seeing me executed as a war criminal.”

Rose shook her head. He was sure he almost saw her smile as she replied. “You’re not getting executed.”

“What?”

“I vouched for you. The General did, too, for your war efforts. And so did Ben Solo.”

Ben Solo? The name was unfamiliar to Hux. How could someone he’d never met vouch for him?   
  
“Ben Solo?”

“Kylo Ren? He and Rey of Jakku defeated The Emperor. The Final Order fell. And now…”

That’s when Rose pointed down the line of beds from him, where the Scavenger girl he’d seen in the Most Wanted holos and his enemy, The Supreme Leader, were sitting. Only, the Supreme Leader didn’t much look like the Supreme Leader. Dressed in a soft sweater and smiling as if he’d always been meant to smile, he looked…good.

The bitter taste of jealousy flooded Hux’s mouth. Could he ever feel that good? Was it even possible for someone like him?

Tentatively, he reached out for Rose’s hand, letting his fingers dance along hers questioningly. “You once told me that there was a big universe outside of the walls of the Star Destroyer. And that there was a place for me in it. Do you…do you still believe that? Is there still hope for me?”

Rose smirked and took his hand. Bold. Hux gripped her hand right back. It was the most beautiful thing he’d ever touched. “Don’t you know anything, Armitage Hux? There’s _always_ hope.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, everyone! This is my very first GingerFlower fic. Someone posted this kind of Spy!Hux prompt online and I wanted to see what I could do with it. Please let me know what you think! <3


End file.
